How bad would the barbarian invasions have to get in order for Latin/Romance to become completely extinct?
How bad would the barbarian invasions have to get in order for Latin/Romance to become completely extinct?
It is not that ASB-ish. Latin was lost in Britain and North Africa (or has it survived somewhere there?)
But they would still be Romance languages.One way to kill Latin is to stop the establishment of the Catholic church in Rome. The Gospels, after all, were written in Greek. Greek then becomes the root language of the Christian faith and when Rome falls, remaining Latin influences mix with the regional languages, as in OTL. When printing comes along, as in OTL, the dialects of the capitals become the nuclei of the modern languages.
But they would still be Romance languages.
Ofcourse Greek isn't a Romance language, but I think that Mark E's reasoning is flawed. Let me clearify:Greek isnt Romance though...
One way to kill Latin is to stop the establishment of the Catholic church in Rome. The Gospels, after all, were written in Greek. Greek then becomes the root language of the Christian faith and when Rome falls, remaining Latin influences mix with the regional languages, as in OTL. When printing comes along, as in OTL, the dialects of the capitals become the nuclei of the modern languages.
Latin was a secondary and tertiary language inside of North Africa, and even less so inside of Britain. Their loss of Latin was more likely to happen than its loss inside in Greece and the Eastern Roman Empire.It is not that ASB-ish. Latin was lost in Britain and North Africa (or has it survived somewhere there?), and Greek has been lost in most of the eastern half. We need to replace Latin with a new high-status language that the population will shift to.
It depends on whether the success of the later Romance language is seen to satisfy the condition of making Latin extinct. Without Latin in churches, the later languages diverge farther, as regional languages in modern France, Spain and Portugal have a larger contribution than Latin. To corrupt Italian with more Germanic influences would be more difficult, but with a church attached to Greek and not Latin, the influence of Latin on later languages would be much less.But they would still be Romance languages.
It depends on whether the success of the later Romance language is seen to satisfy the condition of making Latin extinct. Without Latin in churches, the later languages diverge farther, as regional languages in modern France, Spain and Portugal have a larger contribution than Latin. To corrupt Italian with more Germanic influences would be more difficult, but with a church attached to Greek and not Latin, the influence of Latin on later languages would be much less.
Or have a wildly successful Arab conquest of Gaul and Italy, basically a repeat of their invasion of the Eastern Mediterranean. This allows for the gradual obliteration of the native languages and religion, à la Egypt, Syria, Andalusia, etc. Maybe have isolated regions like Sardinia and the Romansh region rebel from time to time, allowing the Arabs to crush and convert them as well.